Level 13 - Intermediate Bluffs

Special Moves

The 3 Bluff

• Typically, the player who receives a clue that causes a Bluff blind-play knows that the card that was clued is one-away-from-playable.
• Our group plays with an artificial 3 Bluffs convention. This means that in addition to being one-away-from-playable, we agree that a Bluff can also be any 3 that will be useful in the future. (If you are curious, the history of this move is on a separate page.)
• You can initiate a 3 Bluff with either a completely-unclued 3 or an already-clued 3; the same connect/disconnect rules apply in both cases.
• 3 Bluffs are mostly used to get 1's played at the beginning of the game. However, similar to a normal Bluff, a 3 Bluff can be used to get any playable card (as long as it doesn't look like a Finesse).
• Here are some examples that cover the most common 3 Bluff situations.

Example 1 - Color Disconnect (Valid)

• On the first turn of the game, Alice clues Cathy red, which touches a red 3.
• Bob blind-plays blue 1.
• Cathy knows that it is either a red 2 (if it was a normal Bluff) or a red 3 (if it was a 3 Bluff). She marks down both of the possibilities for later.

Example 2 - Number 3 with Suit Disconnect (Valid)

• On the first turn of the game, Alice clues Cathy number 3, which touches a red 3.
• Bob blind-plays blue 1.
• Cathy knows that it was a 3 Bluff, because a played 1 does not "connect" to number 3.
• Beyond that, Cathy knows nothing about the card, besides that it is a 3 (since it has a number 3 clue on it).

Example 3 - Color Connect (Not Valid; Looks Like a Finesse)

• On the first turn of the game, Alice clues Cathy red, which touches a red 3.
• Bob blind-plays red 1.
• Cathy sees that Bob does not have red 2. Since red connects to red, Cathy assumes that she has the red 2.
• Cathy misplays the red 3 as a red 2.
• Alternatively, if Cathy saw that Bob had both red 1 and red 2 on his Finesse Position at the time the clue was given, she would know that she has the red 2 or the red 3. Subsequently, Bob is promised a red 2, since if he does not blind-play a card, Cathy will go on to misplay the red 3 as red 2.

Example 4 - Color Connect With Rank Disconnect (Not Valid; Looks Like a Finesse)

• This is a 4-player game.
• Nothing is played on the stacks.
• Alice clues Donald red, touching a red 3 as a play clue.
• Bob blind-plays the red 1.
• Cathy notices that Donald's red card has a negative 2 clue on it. This means that Donald will not go on to misplay the card as the red 2.
• Cathy needs to evaluate whether or not Alice's clue is a Finesse or a 3 Bluff. If this is a Double Finesse, then Cathy needs to blind-play the red 2. If this is a Bluff, then Alice only intended for Bob to blind-play.
• Cathy knows that since red connects to red, this must be a Double Finesse, so Cathy assumes that she has the red 2 on her Finesse Position.
• Cathy misplays blue 5.

Example 5 - Number 3 With Suit Connect (Valid)

• On the first turn of the game, Alice clues Cathy number 3, which touches a red 3.
• Bob blind-plays red 1.
• Cathy knows that it was a 3 Bluff, because a played 1 does not "connect" to number 3.
• Beyond that, Cathy knows nothing about the card, besides that it is a 3 (since it has a number 3 clue on it).
• Even though red 1 and red 3 are the same suit, Bob is not promised a red 2.

Generic Questions

• 3 Bluffs can be confusing. If you don't want to memorize the five examples above, you can simply ask the following questions:
  1. Does the clue "connect" to the blind-play?
     • If it connects, then it is a Finesse.
     • If it does not connect, then it is a Bluff.
     • Red connects to red, but red does not connect to blue.
     • 2 connects to 3, but 1 does not connect to 3.
  2. Will the player who received the clue go on to misplay if nothing else is blind-played?
     • If yes, then it is a Finesse.
     • If no, then it is a Bluff.

The Critical Color Bluff (CCB)

• Building on the 3 Bluffs convention, we also agree that it is possible for a card that initiates a Bluff to be any critical card, but only if a color clue is used, and only if it is not a 5.
  • Note that this includes the black 4 or any "dark" 4.
• Unlike the 3 Bluff, you can only initiate a Critical Color Bluff with a completely-unclued critical card.
• For example, in a 3-player game:
  • Nothing is played on the stacks. Red 4 is currently in the discard pile.
  • Alice clues Cathy red, touching a red 4 as a Play Clue.
  • Bob blind-plays a blue 1.
  • Cathy marks her red card as the one-away-from-playable red card, the red 2.
  • However, Cathy also knows that 3 Bluffs are a thing, so she also marks her red card as possibly a red 3.
  • However, Cathy also knows that Critical Color Bluffs are a thing, so she also marks her red card as possibly a red 4.

The Hard Bluff

• First, see the section on Cathy's Connecting Principle.
• Sometimes, it can be ambiguous as to whether a player blind-played a card into a Bluff, or they blind-played into a Finesse + Prompt. In this situation, Occam's Razor applies, so players should go with the Bluff interpretation, since it is simpler. When such a Bluff occurs, it is called a Hard Bluff to disambiguate from situations where Bluffs happen with no ambiguity.
• For example, this is a Finesse + Prompt and not a Hard Bluff:
  • Only red 1 is played on the stacks.
  • Cathy has a 3 clued in her hand (with no color information on it).
  • Alice clues Cathy about a new 4.
  • Bob blind-plays red 2.
  • In a normal Bluff, a one-away-from-playable card is clued. However, Cathy sees that the highest stack is the red stack, so the 4 in her hand must be two-away.
  • Thus, Cathy does not read it as a Bluff; she is promised red 3 and red 4, so she plays the unknown 3 as a Self-Prompt for the red 3.

• For example, this is a Hard Bluff:
  • Red 1 and blue 2 are played on the stacks.
  • Cathy has a 3 clued in her hand (with no color information on it).
  • Alice clues Cathy about a new 4.
  • Bob blind-plays red 2.
  • This could be a Bluff if the 4 in her hand is blue 4, since blue 4 is currently one-away-from-playable. Thus, Cathy does not assume that her 4 is red 4, and subsequently, does not assume that her unknown 3 is a red 3. However, it could also be the case that the 4 is a red 4 (if the 3 in her hand happens to be red 3).
  • Thus, Cathy marks down both possibilities for later and does not play anything right now.

The Hard 3 Bluff

• Players can use a 3 to 3 Bluff the 1 of the same suit.
• This is called a Hard 3 Bluff to distinguish it from a more-ordinary 3 Bluff.
• An example of a Hard 3 Bluff can be found above as example 5.

The Known Bluff

• Usually, when a Bluff occurs, the blind-playing player has no idea that is a Bluff - they assume they are playing a specific card into a true Finesse.
• However, in rare situations, a clue will be given that looks like a Finesse, but the next player will know for sure that they do not have the "connecting" card.
• In these situations, if the next player cannot see a better explanation for the clue, then they should blind-play their Finesse Position card as a Known Bluff.
• For example:
  • The player might see all of the copies of the card that they are supposed to be blind-playing.
  • The player might have negative information on their entire hand (e.g. negative blue on every card when they are supposed to be blind-playing a blue 2).
  • The player might know that they are blind-playing a 1 into a 3 Bluff (e.g. a card was clued with number 3 and there are no cards played yet).

The Good Touch Bluff

• Care has to be taken so that a Bluff does not look like a Finesse.
• For example, in a 4-player game:
  • Red 2 and blue 2 are played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues Cathy number 4, which touches a red 4.
  • Bob blind-plays a blue 3 from his Finesse Position.
  • Since 3 connects to 4, Cathy knows she has the blue 4, and goes on to misplay red 4 as blue 4.
  • Thus, Alice should not have given this clue.

• However, what if someone else on the team already has the connecting card? In this situation, the clue can be given without fear: from Good Touch Principle, the clue recipient will know that it is a Bluff instead of a Finesse.
• For example, in a 4-player game:
  • Red 2 and blue 2 are played on the stacks.
  • Alice clues Cathy number 4, which touches a red 4.
  • Bob blind-plays a blue 3 from his Finesse Position.
  • Cathy's first thought is that since 3 connects to 4, she must have the blue 4. However, Cathy sees that Donald already has a clued blue 4 it in his hand. (The blue 4 just has a blue clue on it and the true identity of the card is not yet known to Donald.)
  • Cathy knows that she must not have the blue 4, because then Alice's clue would have violated Good Touch Principle. Cathy can reason that her 4 is instead some other one-away-from-playable 4. The only other valid Bluff target is the red 4 (because the only one-away-from-playable 4 is red 4). So, Cathy marks her number 4 card as a red 4, and discards.
  • Donald is surprised by Alice's clue. From Donald's perspective, Cathy should have misplayed the red 4 as the blue 4, since 3 connects to 4.
  • Since Cathy did not misplay, Donald can reason that he must have the blue 4. Donald marks the previously unknown blue card in his hand as blue 4.

General Principles

Legal Bluff-Targets

The full list of legal Bluff targets is represented in the following table:

Type of Card	Color Clue	Number Clue	Name of Convention
any one-away-from-playable card	✔️	✔️	Bluff
any two-away-from-playable 3	✔️	✔️	3 Bluff
any critical non-5	✔️	❌	Critical Color Bluff